Cheating, Stealing, Gouging Customers: The World Of London Real Estate

By consumerist.comMarch 22, 2006

Wow. The latest entry in the Beeb’s Whistleblower series of undercover reporting has blown the real estate market in London wide open.

According to Anna Adams — a reporter who went undercover at British estate agencies such as Foxtons and Time2Move — her 8 month investigation revealed real estate agents forging signatures, securing fake passports, bribery, lying to customers, overvaluing property and collusion with mortgage companies to ascertain exactly how much money could be squeezed dry from their customers.

It’s all straight out of Glengarry Glenn Ross: desperate salesmen lying, stealing and cheating to close the deal, as Mephisto-like management figures gleefully praise those who are amoral enough to succeed while openly humiliating those without the stomach to do “whatever it takes”.

God, I hate this genus of bloodsucking, booyeahing bully so much. I wonder what it would be like shoot a bazooka right into the smarmy, success-driven face of Jon Hunt, head of Foxtons (right). The force and velocity of my spontaneous erection would probably punch a hole clean through my forehead.